View full sizeScott Shaw, The Plain Dealer"I got to No.1 in the world at a couple of points and won three tournaments," Rory McIlory told inquiring reporters during a Tuesday press conference at the Bridgestone Invitational. "So I feel like the golf I've played since has been pretty good. I'm not going to be able to play golf like I played at Congressional (at the 2011 U.S. Open) every week. I think everyone knows that."

AKRON, Ohio -- Rory McIlroy's fall and rise in the first two majors last year didn't just demonstrate resiliency. They showed golf transfiguration.

His Masters disintegration, losing a four-shot lead after three rounds in the rubble of a closing 80, earned him a sympathetic message from Greg Norman, a man known for what he failed to do more than what he actually did.

What McIlroy did next, though, was rout the U.S. Open field, winning by eight shots at Congressional. Norman, with only two majors in a good career that was never quite great, never had redemptive moment like that.

It was a display out of the Year of the Tiger, 2000, convincing many that McIlroy, now 23, with his Ulsterman's brogue and his dashing game, had arrived as a towering figure in the Munchkin squabble of golf since Tiger Woods' injuries and scandals.

At times this year, however, the forecasts seemed not just premature, but preposterous. McIlroy missed the cut in four of five tournaments (Players, Memorial, European PGA and U.S. Open) in the heart of the golf year. Wedged in there was a seventh-place finish in Memphis. That tournament is called the FedEx St. Jude Classic. (Your joke about hopeless causes goes here.) McIlroy also tied for 60th in the British Open.

Tuesday at Firestone South, amid preparations for the Bridgestone Invitational, he said his year, with a victory in March's Honda Classic and a seventh-place standing in the money winnings, has been a good one.

"Expectations were definitely heightened after Congressional. Whether they were unrealistic or not, I'm not too sure. I have high expectations of myself, and I feel like for the 12 months after Congressional I've played some really good golf," said McIlroy.

Fair enough. If he is no longer seen through the prism of his best times, he shouldn't be judged by his worst ones. The stats, though, show that McIlroy simply hasn't kept it in the short grass often enough -- 160th in driving accuracy and a corresponding 114th in greens in regulation.

"I got to No.1 in the world at a couple of points and won three tournaments," he said. "So I feel like the golf I've played since has been pretty good. I'm not going to be able to play golf like I played at Congressional every week. I think everyone knows that."

At least McIlroy, now ranked third in the world, doesn't have to answer the same question as Luke Donald, currently the world's No. 1, Lee Westwood and Justin Rose. It is the same question poor Sergio Garcia has faced four times a year since he hit the shot off the tree root and almost beat Tiger in the PGA at Medinah in 1999.

"It's nice to go to majors now and not be asked the question that a few other guys are asked, 'when are you going to win your first one?' Or, 'do you feel like it's time?' It's nice to just have that monkey off my back," McIlroy said.

In that regard, he reached out to Australia's Adam Scott after Scott's recent meltdown at the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes resulted in Ernie Els becoming the most surprised holder of the Claret Jug since Paul Lawrie took advantage of Jan van de Velde's collapse at Carnoustie in 1999.

"I sort of felt like I knew how he was feeling," said McIlroy. "I just said to him, don't let the last four holes hide the fact that you played better than everyone else for the first 68. For me, as well, at Augusta, I had to really tell myself, look, for the first 63 holes you were better than everyone else. It's not my fault, it's not his fault, that a golf tournament is 72 holes."

Well, yes. And baseball just happens to be nine innings, and football just happens to be four quarters (or two halves, if we're talking, you know, soccer).

Norman in 1986 won the "Saturday Slam," leading every major after three rounds. He won only the British Open. Finishing makes the difference.

"At that moment in time you think it's the only chance you're ever going to get, and your whole world came crashing down," McIlroy said. "It's hard to play with the lead. It's hard to keep yourself that focused and just concentrate on yourself and get the job done. It's like sometimes the guys coming up behind you feel like there's nothing to lose, so they just go for it."

Unlike McIlroy, Scott, Jason Dufner, and Jim Furyk recently, Woods, who is now No. 2 in the world rankings and has won here seven times, never gave a major away. But the most beloved player on the Tour now, Phil Mickelson, has done so occasionally. So did the most beloved ever, Arnold Palmer. So did the most beloved international player, Norman.

Vince Lombardi is credited with saying "winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." He must not have been a golf fan.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.